1903 Turned down bolt.

[Polinese]

I was thinking about buying a couple stripped 1903 receivers and rebuilding them from there into 1903a4's. They come with a stripped bolt and I was wondering how hard/expensive it is to have that converted into a turned down bolt. I'd be ok with something like boltman doing it if need be, or maybe just find a loaner bolt with a turned down handle since they'll be re headspaced anyways?

Thanks for the help.

[4V50 Gary]

Any good smith could forge the bolt down. It's not hard (we had to do it to our Mauser 98s at school). The receiver will have to be in-letted afterward (but that's not hard either).

[HiBC]

I suggest you search e-bay and the web for pictures of an original 03A4 bolt.

They have their own look.

I considered conventional bolt forging,found a smith...but,imo,too much heat goes to the cocking cam.I was afraid it would soften.

I turned a steel plug about 2 1/2 in long that would slip fit inside the stripped bolt body.
leave about 1 inch length of a larger shank,so it will stop

On the shank end,turn to about 5/16 to serve as a nipple to slip a tube over.

Then I drilled a 5/32 hole in the end of that nipple,about 2/3 the length of this plug.

Now,with this slipped inside the bolt,see where the root of the bolt handle is relative to the plug,and mark the plug.Cross drill a port to connect to the hole up the center of the plug.

So,what you have is a support,so the bolt body will not distort,you have a small heat sink,but you also have is the means to feed cooling water to the inside of the bolt right at the root of the bolt handle.

It looked to me that they did not notch the rail to clear the bolt handle.

What I did,at the outer edge of the rail,for location,I cut,with an abrasive cutoff wheel from above,about 2/3 to 3/4 the way through the root of the bolt handle,even with the outer edge of the receiver.On the bottom of the root of the bolt handle,you have left about 1/8 in of steel.Later,this will get quickly heated red with an oxy-acetylene torch,and will act as a hinge for a nice downward bend.But,not yet.

First,set up the bolt body in a vise ,with some sort of wrench or cheater,to grab the bolt handle with.Also setup something like a hanging IV drip bottle(open top,for refill) or other cool water supply,and a hose to that plug you made.And,think about the water that will get all over,ahead of time.

That cut,and thin web,will somewhat act as a heat choke,and with a water feed,the bolt will stay cool.

Now,look careful at the pix of an original,and look at how the lower part of the bolt handle needs to be reshaped before you make the bend to turn the bolt handle down.You pretty much need to take the original bend out,and then curve it out some more.You'll make it look like a straight Mauser,them go more,curving it up.Use heat,get it red,bend slow.Let it cool down.

Now,you might reposition it in the vise.You will use water again.Use the torch to heat that thin web of steel on the lower side of the root of the bolt handle.Get it red,slowly bend the bolt down,about 75 or 80 degrees,to what looks right.Let it cool.

So now you have a roughly shaped bolt handle with a wide open vee on the top to weld up.

We used a Lincoln flux core wire feed.My welder friend preferred to not stand in a puddle and have water running while welding.
OK.We had a bucket of water.He'd weld 3 or 4 seconds,then we'd quench,wire wheel off the slag,weld again,etc till it was filled.

This worked really well.The B+S(Browne and Sharpe) stamp on the top of the bolt handle is intact.No heat discoloration at the cocking cam.It all stayed cool.

Now you can tweak your bends to just right,and grind the welded area to shape.

There is still the relief grind to make for the scope ocular.

I cheated.

I measured the scope height above bore,set the bolt up vertical in a Bridgeport with a vee-block,clocked to the "bolt open" position.I put the mill spindle where the axis of the scope would be,and used a boring head and carbide boring bar to make the relief cut for .060 clearance around the ocular.
Consider ,in your bending,how to keep this cutting minimized.It gets a little thin.

With a little more massaging,mine came out to look exactly like the pix of an original.

You may not have all the resources I had,but this may give you something to work with.

BTW,very early,potentially brittle bolts,had the handle turned straight down.Later,strong bolts were slightly swept back.

[T. O'Heir]

They're forged to clear a scope. Actually those 3/4" tube scopes, but it clears a 1" tube.
You can buy bolts or bolt handles from Gunparts that are ready made for scope clearance for $26.65(stripped).
A 1903 receiver isn't the right one and has to be a high S/N. You'd likely do better building regular 03's than faking an A4.

[Polinese]

They're remington and smith corona receivers so I'm not worried about the s/n's. It wouldn't be 100% accurate either as I'm planning to use refurbished weaver k3's as opposed to the old 330c scopes or their reproductions.

[HiBC]

You make your own choices,no problem.If I was building on an 03,vs an 03A3,I might look into building the Marine version with the 8x Unertl.I do not know the quality,but Malcom makes a replica.

You might do some checking,as the CMP vintage rules cut a little slack in some areas,but not in others.

And,that dovetail block on the top of the the rear bridge.works with the correct Redfield Jr base.It gives you some material fot the one screw they use in the rear bridge.I'm saying a correct 1903A4 base will not be compatable with a 1903 receiver.(FWIW,I took a very light,maybe .003,cleanup cut square and straight across the rear of that 03A3 dovetail sharp edge.I set the rear face of the slot in the Redfield base tight against that square cut when I drilled and tapped.Result:I made a little recoil lug to take the shear load off the screws during recoil.I also set up the front ring tight on the scope with sleeve Loctite.That front ring bayonet mt is strong.But,the narrow rear ring,with those windage screws,is weak.The little crescent cuts fail if the front ring slips.
I snug the rear ring screws to "friction drag zero clearance",and I put a little grease inside the ring.I want the rear ring to slip under load.The 7/8 rear rings are darn near collector items,hard to find and high $)

You may be able to find a Redfield Jr base for a 1903.

But I do not know if it will pass as authentic for a Vintage Sniper match.

I suggest if you want a 1903A4,start with an 03A3 rec.If tou want an 03 rec,go with the Unertl type scope.
Also,I have readon the CMP forum the K-3 is not allowed,but the K2.5 is.

I used a Lyman Alaskan.I like it,and,while the orders got canceled at the end of the war,and maybe? no actual 1903A4's were built with Alaskans,on paper it was a variant.
Another good thing about the Alaskan,put the W +E turrets in front of the front ring.This scope has very good eye relief.Mounted so,the military safety will swing its full 180 deg behind the ocular.

Most Springfield rec's available today are reclaimed drill rifles.Most are very well done.I sent one of 3 back.

On the front of the front receiver ring,at 6 oclock,the barrels were tack welded.

There is a little sink/distortion in that spot.I recommend Brownells receiver facing mandrel for a Springfield.It makes easy work of truing the face of the receiver ring.
Even with a very light cut,you may find an original or Criterion replacement barrel will not be indexed properly when torqued.Figure on a 1 thread setback and then reaming to headspace.

[HiBC]

I bought one of the gun parts bolts.I was underwhelmed.

[Polinese]

I may be wrong but I thought all the Remington and Smith Corona receivers were 03a3. I didn't think either of them made any original 1903's. As for the scope I can always track down a 2.5 I'm planning on building 2. One legal for matches the other with a lil more tweaking... timney trigger, bedding etc... Even if I never compete with them this is more a project and just something I wanna have first.

I've heard the unertl quality (the repro) is a lil questionable... specifically that the scope itself is good but the mounts are lacking. Same with the 330c scope that company is making hence why I decided to just pick up some weaver k series for the project.

[4V50 Gary]

HiBC - what was wrong with the GunParts bolt? Poorly casted? Bad shape? Do tell. I'm not interested in buying one for myself as I'd make a new heat sink and bend my own.

[James K]

There are many '03A4 bolts available. Most are fakes, made from '03 bolts, but they will clear a scope OK, and will look correct to 90% of the folks who see them. Since you have no intent to deceive anyone, any of those should be OK.

Jim

[HiBC]

Gary,I gave that bolt away over a year ago,I can't recall specifics.

They started with an issue bolt.If you think in terms of a guy with a fixture and a torch doing them by the hour or by the piece,its a clue.

As I recall,it looked like no consideration to the amount of heat,and it was just bent square down,no shaping,and in the rough.Scale on the cocking cam.

I understand,a smith who has to make money will have a "git her done" process.It may very well be a great,efficient process.

I'm just doing my own.I do not have a jig.My priority for the job I wanted was to not anneal the cocking cam,and to stay as faithful as possible to the appearance of the originals.My process took time,but it worked good.

I have no intent to ever sell it,and,if I did,I would tell the true story :Its a mock up from parts and a drill rifle receiver.

Nothing wrong with trying to make a nice one.

[F. Guffey]

I may be wrong but I thought all the Remington and Smith Corona receivers were 03a3.

Polinese, I have a Remington 03 without the A3, The serial number works out to be 1942. I could post serial numbers by date but just as sure as I did someone would claim 'the expert in the field of serial numbers title'. I hate to waist their time.

F. Guffey

My Remington 03 went through California with a stop at Santa Fe Arms. I paid $150.00 for it, the price included two boxes of new 30/06 R-P ammo. Seems the proud owner that purchases it from Sears in the early 60s never shot it, I could not figure if he gave me the ammo or charged me $120.00 for the rifle. I went to the range with the rifle and one box of the old ammo, there was nothing I could do to improve the accuracy, so I applied the leaver policy. I still need a receiver for an 03A4 barrel. It is chambered to 308 Norma Mag..

[10-96]

HiBC - what was wrong with the GunParts bolt? Poorly casted? Bad shape? Do tell. I'm not interested in buying one for myself as I'd make a new heat sink and bend my own.

On mine, I didn't notice a lot of scale, or other visual distractors. But, what I found, was that I had to remove a lot of material from the knuckle area in order for it to clear my scopes ocular bell.